SoulCalibur V: Sweet Dreams
by SoulsSwords
Summary: SoulCalibur ONESHOT: Xiba has fallen ill and isn't up for more travelling. Maxi settles the gang down at an Inn so he can recover from this flu-like sickness. Leixia decides to go with Maxi to get some medicine while Natsu stays behind in case the poor boy needs anything. However, something changes between the two as they bond...


** Souls_&_Swords: Fulfilling my first request for fellow writer **_**The Shattered Tear **_**=) This isn't related to "Might of One" nor is this a pairing I'm a necessary fan of =P I hope you guys like this!**

In the rooms of the small Inn in Eastern Europe, the Asian gang entered and picked out their rooms. Xiba had been feeling under the weather the past few days and Maxi decided that maybe the travelling wasn't helping.

"Alright guys…" he put down their heavy traveling gear, "Go on and pick out your rooms." Xiba coughed into his arm, it sounded painful. It _was_. He felt pressure fill his chest with each heave."Don't worry buddy, resting for a bit might help."

Xiba sniffled, "Thanks Maxi." His fever had been causing him to sweat. He'd woken up in the middle of the night and it had just happened; the intolerable vertigo, the unstable mixture of chills and burning temperatures in his body. They were near a fresh water lake, so Xiba had thought that would help him. But once he got to the lake and got his water, he was too dizzy to even stand up or look around, too weak. The crimson-haired Washu had to crawl back to his companions. "There's gotta be a shower in here somewhere…" he walked off into the hallway to find one.

"I think it's the middle door in the hall." Maxi called, knowing most Inns all looked similar. Xiba entered, shutting the door behind him and locking it; it was the correct room. Maxi assumed it was something he'd caught from the previous town. They were in the Mughal Empire.

"Hey, Lord Maxi?" Leixia asked, "If Natsu and I are sharing a room, and you want Xiba to rest since he's sick, where will you sleep?" she raised a brow, Maxi grinned.

"On the sofa over there," he pointed to a two-seated red sofa with a small table in front of it. Leixia turned back to him, "However, we've gotta keep an eye out for him; later on once we're settled, I'm gonna take a peak around town to find some medicines."

"You think you and Natsu can watch him while I'm gone later?" Leixia nodded, it was mid-morning, the shops probably weren't even open yet. Presumably an Apothecary was bound to be somewhere in the town. After laying out their small pallets for beds and unpacking their needed hygienic belongings, everyone was settled. Xiba dried himself from the shower (as well as his clothes which he figured he should wash) and crawled into bed. What Xiba hated the most from being sick, aside from the lack of oxygen and the lethargy, was the inconsistent body temperatures.

He'd taken his shirt off, something he normally did when he slept anyway, but when he attempted to get comfortable underneath the thin comforters, it was simply too hot for the feverish young man. Xiba had a massive headache that was keeping him from falling asleep. He only laid there with his eyes closed.

"Knock knock." A cheerful Maxi entered,

"Knockedy Knock!" Natsu happily chimed in, her joke had failed however as Maxi gave her a look,

"Um…don't do that." He knelt down next to Xiba, feeling his bicep and his forehead,

"Hey guys…" Xiba moaned.

"Huh…it only seems you've gotten worse, you still have a fever." The boy flipped himself onto his stomach, which was more comfortable to him,

"I'll be fine; I just haven't gotten a good sleep in a while." The staff inheritor admitted, slightly woozy from the dizziness.

Natsu was concerned, "You sure? Maxi said while he goes out to get medicine that Leixia and I-" the young Chinese woman entered,

"Actually, I'm going into town with Maxi since my father and I studied medicine together; I probably could help him. So you're just gonna watch him." The ginger-blonde ninja flinched,

"By myself? But…What should I do? I'm not the best at making tea or anything…" she worried, especially since she was now in charge of a close friend of hers.

Maxi nodded, "Don't worry; he just said he wants to rest, and we'll only be an hour or so."

Xiba was weak; he couldn't even make a noise of confirmation with his throat to agree. He was in fact drifting into sleep at that moment. Natsu put a hand over her heart,

"Well, okay." Leixia eagerly headed for the door, intrigued by the eccentric qualities of the town they were in,

"Take care. Xiba, feel better." Maxi noted before slowly closing the door behind them. Natsu sat down next to his pallet, he had already fallen into a deep sleep that his body had been craving for so long. As the sailor and the swordswoman exited the Inn, they were immediately greeted, and creeped out, by a strange mime performer and darted away into the towns.

Natsu knew she was fond of Xiba, but for some reason her heart always raced when she was alone with him, she always felt how hot her cheeks were and was conscious of every movement she made. She was aware that this was the reason behind her hesitance but lately the closer she'd gotten to Xiba, the more fond of his looks she'd also gotten, his muscular physique, his gentle, kind eyes, the spiky short red hair that she adored.

And such a kind, generous heart he kept masked beneath a goofy, waggish persona. That didn't mean he was afraid to show it. Xiba was in no way selfish or greedy, this only made Natsu like him even more than she knew. "I hope he gets better soon…" she thought to herself in her head. The Japanese girl blushed with a smile, despite he wasn't awake to see it.

In the towns, Leixia and Maxi looked in each direction for the right shop, but the only things being sold so far were clothes and little trinkets. "Oh. Maxi, there's a tea vender nearby." She pointed out. He perked up,

"Some hot tea should help; but where's that apothecary you were talkin' about?"

"I think I know…" A creepy, elderly, dark haired woman suddenly stepped out of the shadows. The two thankfully had their weapons, but even _this _was so unnerving that they didn't even think to use them!

"Hello!" The woman, suddenly much cuter and healthier approached, "My name is Heather, did you say you needed an Apothecary?"

The two eased up, Leixia's overly trusting personality came out once again, "Yes, our friend is sick-"

"Leixia." Maxi elbowed her, Heather laughed,

"Oh don't worry! I have perfect elixirs and medicines made from the finest herbs you've ever seen." Maxi was still quizzical,

"I'm not sure…maybe someone else-"

"Oh ease up buttercup!" The elder tapped his nose, "Once you see my shop, you'll change your mind right away." She turned around, gesturing them to follow them. Leixia leapt forward,

"She's so cute! Let's go Maxi!" she followed right after Heather, in which Maxi reluctantly copied, though he still found her creepy.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

It had been nearly forty five minutes since the two had left and Natsu was growing uneasy. Not with them being gone but with Xiba. He'd been asleep all this time, occasionally stirring and turning in his sleep, he was now on his back with one arm crossed over the blanket on his body. He still appeared damp, was his fever breaking or getting worse she feared. Natsu hoped this illness wasn't fatal.

She put her hand on his forehead, gently brushing his bangs aside. Still hot. Damn it. Natsu began to ponder, "Should I get a cold cloth and cool him down?" She wondered, she could just rinse a towelette with cold water and go from there. She then noticed something interesting about the wild boy's slumber, his eyes darting left and right behind his eyelids. Was he dreaming?

She began to wonder about what or if she was in it. She didn't know why, but she kind of hoped she was. Natsu then observed the pendant he always wore around his neck, it had beige and blue circled beads around the string. It always rattled and jingled when he moved too quickly. She wanted to look at it; closely. The ninja slowly untied the thread from his neck and lifted the necklace closer.

"How nice…" she whispered, it had a lovely wooden texture in the brown trinkets, the blue beads appeared more teal up close. They were probably what made the jingling sound she thought. Upon lowering the necklace from her face she looked at Xiba's eyes.

Eyes…he was awake! "Oh! Um! Xiba…" speaking of the rattling noise, she jerked back with the pendant in hand.

"What are you doing with that?" he barely mumbled. His eyes were red and puffy, but still that deep fawn that Natsu loved. She blushed,

"I'm sorry…it's just, you were sleeping, so-"

"So you took my mom's necklace?" he pushed himself upright, his throat was more clear than before he fell asleep.

Wait a minute… "Huh? This was your mom's?"

"It was hers before she died. Aside from the anklet, it's all I have left of her." The wild boy held out his hand to take the pendant back.

"Oh…I'm sorry…" Xiba gently accepted it and tied it back around his neck,

"Don't worry about it." He sighed. "I understand girls like their jewelry." He interjected, making the ninja giggle.

"You seem to be feeling better." Her orange ponytails wavered as she knelt forward.

"Yeah," the red-haired boy agreed, "Not a hundred percent, but I'm getting there." There was a brief pause, he was looking at her, as if studying her. Natsu felt the red color slowly paint itself on her cheeks. The sun coming in through the window made his eyes glow with an amber radiance. "When I was asleep just a second ago, I had this dream I've actually had quite a few times. Normally I'd forget it when I wake up but this one was different…"

Natsu was eager to hear, "What was it about?"

"You see, it involved something that happened to me when I was uh…eight? Seven?" he thought aloud.

"Would you tell me about it?" she kindly asked, extremely curious.

"Well…" Xiba began, "Let me explain to you what happened first, then the dream." She nodded, "When I was a kid, as you know, Edge Master took care of me most of the time. So once, for my birthday…I really wish I could remember which exact birthday it was," he struggled, "Anyway," he shook his head, "He took me down to this temple, where they had all kinds of cool food and performances and all that," he explained with a smile, "But I heard this sound coming from a distance…It was this…amazing music it was beautiful." He slowed down, remembering the sentiment of how much he appreciated that moment,

"I first heard the erhu, there were other instruments like a ruan, guqin, and I think even a yang-qin." His smile slowly eased in, "In the dream, I didn't hear all of the instruments, but I heard the erhu…that's the sound that stuck with me the most…it had such a nice tone to it." Natsu was enchanted, she never realized how deeply Xiba held these little details to him,

"So…the dream was more like a memory?" she wondered.

"Sort of…But here's what happened;" he turned himself towards her, "You were with me at that temple, and we were watching the performers play their music. You said that you couldn't see them very well, even though we were in the front row, so we were looking around for a better place to sit." Natsu snorted with a gentle smirk, "I don't know why but I liked this one better than the other times I dreamed about that because I wasn't there by myself this time." His spirited persona was slowly making a comeback,

"Maybe one day…" Natsu smiled, she looked away, blushing, "Maybe when this is all over…we could go back there one day." She looked into his eyes with her ember irises, "We could hear the music together."

Xiba smiled brightly, "That'd be fun." Natsu slowly inched closer,

"It would…" she wanted to hold him, but Xiba recoiled,

"You remember I'm sick, right?" He certainly didn't look, nor sound like it anymore,

"Yeah…so?" she admitted, with a slight passion in her voice. Xiba understood what she was feeling. Their gazes were mesmerizing; they captivated each other completely. Natsu put her arms around his neck. The two closed their eyes and slowly began to pull in….

"Hey guys!" The door bursted open, the two jumped away from each other. It was Maxi, with a bag that contained a small vile, "We got the medicine!" Leixia hopped in,

"We got it from this super nice old lady!" she giggled, "She even told Maxi she could give him a solution that could fix his hair." She laughed, Maxi sneered,

"Well…what does she know?!"

While the two were…quite harshly interrupted, something was going to change in their relationship, as the ninja and the wild staff boy looked at each other and smiled.


End file.
